Changes in step variability of new walkers with typical development and with Down syndrome

Models of human gait are based on adult locomotion. C. E. Bauby and A. D. Kuo (2000) proposed that adults rely on passive mechanisms at the spinal level to control motion in the anteroposterior direction and rely on direct monitoring of postural control in the lateral direction. The authors' purpose in this study was to determine if that model applies to control at the onset of walking in typically developing toddlers (n = 9) and in toddlers with Down syndrome (n = 6). Their longitudinal data suggested that toddlers control gait in a distinctly different manner than adults do. An adult pattern of control emerges with experience. In addition, the effect of experience on the emergence of that pattern is magnified by task-specific early intervention. The present data support the emergence and discovery of efficient patterns of control in this fundamental human behavior.     

Examination stress as an ecological inducer of cortisol and psychological responses to stress in undergraduate students

The purpose of the present study was to investigate basic methodological issues related to the usage of an examination stress protocol in studies of psychoneuroendocrinology. In the present study, 57 undergraduate students served as participants. All subjects provided salivary samples and completed psychological inventories during a low examination stress period and again during a high examination stress period. Salivary samples were analyzed for cortisol. Three major findings were observed. First, the examination stress protocol proved to be an effective trigger of elevations in both psychological measures of stress and in cortisol levels. Second, sex differences were observed in cortisol levels, such that males showed an elevation in cortisol during the high examination stress session whereas females did not. Finally, no significant correlations were observed between elevations in psychological measures of stress and elevations in cortisol levels. These findings suggest that the examination stress protocol used in the present study effectively elevated both psychological stress and cortisol levels. Furthermore, these findings suggest that there are biological differences in how males and females respond to stress. Finally, no evidence was found to suggest a relationship between psychological and hormonal levels of stress. Together, these findings suggest the need to better define and consider the implications of both the specific measures of stress being used and individual differences in the subject samples in psychoendocrine studies.     

Dealing With Complexity Differently: From Interaction-Dominant Dynamics to Theoretical Plurality

We describe how the work of Guy Van Orden has been deeply influential in a variety of ways and focus on 2 important features: measurement and context. The centrality of these variables in understanding how psychological regularities emerge in our investigative contexts, and evolve into theories, recommends a different way of dealing with complexity. We argue that the Van Orden approach has, as one possible consequence, a plural approach to psychological phenomena. We end by describing what this means for cognitive science.     

Children's Preferences for Humanized versus Natural Animals

Summary

Children's responsiveness to animal drawings led to the theory that they identify more closely with animals than with humans. Werner's (1948) theory suggests, however, that children may identify equally with humans or animals until they become aware that animals are not appropriately personalized. To determine the development of emotional responses to personalized animals, a matched-pair set of drawings (each set comparing a natural versus a humanized animal) were administered to 377 children, aged 6 to 12. Preferences elicited resulted in random distributions of scores from age 6 through age 9. At age 10 (and after) a “J” curve distribution of scores developed. From the age of 10, a majority of children preferred the natural animals while a few dissidents preferred the humanized animals.     

Disequilibrium in the mind,disharmony in the body

Although it is generally acknowledged that experiences of frustration, confusion, and anxiety are embodied phenomena, very little is known about how these processes modulate presumably unconscious, but constantly present, subtle bodily movement. We addressed this problem by tracking the low-level dynamics of body movement, using 1/f noise, pink noise, or “fractal scaling”, during naturalistic experiences of affect in two studies involving deep learning and effortful problem-solving. Our results indicate that body movement fluctuations of individuals experiencing cognitive equilibrium was characteristic of correlated pink noise, but there was a whitening of the signal when participants experienced states that are diagnostic of cognitive distress such as anxiety, confusion, and frustration. We orient our findings within theories that emphasise the embodied nature of cognition and affect and with perspectives that view affective and cognitive processes as emergent products of a self-organising dynamical system (the brain) that is inextricably coupled to the body.     

Preferences,Welfare, and the Status-Quo Bias

Preferences play a role in well-being that is difficult to escape, but whatever authority one grants to preferences, their malleability seems to cause problems for any theory of well-being that employs them. Most importantly, preferences appear to display a status-quo bias: people come to prefer what they are likely rather than unlikely to get. I try to do two things here. The first is to provide a more precise characterization of the status-quo bias, how it functions, and how it infects commonly accepted theories of well-being. The second is to give an alternative characterization of an agent's preferences that succeeds in avoiding the status-quo bias.